9 Most Shocking Experiments In Human History

MKUltra was a CIA led mind control program. They set out, in 1953, to find methods through human experimentation to identify and develop drugs and procedures to be used during interrogations to weaken the subject and garner confessions through mind control.

At first the CIA focused on LSD-25 (the psychedelic drug also known as acid). In violation of the Nuremberg Code the CIA experimented with the drug without informed consent. They drugged anyone they could get their hands on. Prostitutes, prisoners, patients in mental institutes, CIA employees, doctors, other government agencies, military personnel, and even unsuspecting members of the general public. One mentally ill patient was given LSD for 174 consecutive days. The goal of these experiments was to find a way to bring out confessions or wipe the subjects mind clean and create “a robot agent”.

Many other drugs were used, including heroin, temazepam, mescaline, psilocybin, cannabis, and alcohol. One experiment that was carried out in a prison had CIA agents inject prisoners in one arm with a barbiturate (a type of anaesthetic used to depress the central nervous system) and with amphetamine into the other. When the prison population began to fall asleep due to the barbiturate they would administer the amphetamine. The prisoners began babbling incoherently but occasionally gave usual answers to questions.

Hypnosis and experiments involving flashing lights and loud music were also experimented with. Little hard evidence is available to know what really happened during these experiments due to the then CIA Director, Richard Helms, ordering that all MKUltra files be destroyed before a proper investigation could be carried out.